IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned Sunday that the military is at a critical manpower threshold after nearly three years of multi-front war and needs thousands of additional soldiers immediately.
Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Zamir said the army remains highly prepared to continue fighting, including a possible return to combat against Iran, but warned that the current burden on regular and reserve forces is unsustainable.
“I do not deal with political or legislative processes,” Zamir said. “I deal with multi-front war and defeating the enemy. To keep doing that, the IDF needs more soldiers immediately.”
Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF’s Planning and Manpower Directorate, told lawmakers that if mandatory service is shortened as planned in January, the army will lose thousands more combat soldiers. He said reserve troops would continue serving 80 to 100 days a year, a burden Zamir said could cause the reserve system to collapse.
Zamir said that since Oct. 7, the IDF has fundamentally changed its operational approach, acting offensively across all fronts with “no containment and no equations.” He said the military had removed the threat of direct raids on Israeli communities and met, and exceeded, the objectives set for it.
But he also warned of heavy losses, injuries, combat trauma and ongoing exhaustion among soldiers.
“The IDF must grow, and quickly,” Zamir said. “Recruiting Haredim is an existential need for the IDF, not just a matter of sharing the burden and equality.”
Zamir declined to comment directly on coalition legislation dealing with Haredi enlistment, but said he expected a law that meets Israel’s national needs.
He also rejected attempts to limit women’s service, saying women are an integral part of the IDF’s strength and that the military could not fulfill its missions without them.
“The army will fall apart if everyone serves only on their own terms,” he said.
Zamir said the IDF is on high alert and ready to renew fighting against Iran “as soon as possible,” adding that there is motivation to deepen damage to the Iranian regime over time.
He closed with a warning against politicizing the military.
“I will not allow the IDF to be dismantled,” he said. “We will stand like a fortified wall against any attempt to bring politics into the army.”
Opposition lawmaker Gadi Eisenkot said Zamir’s warning was another sign that the government was prioritizing politics over national security. Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman said the government’s effort to advance legislation exempting large numbers of Haredim from service would severely harm Israel’s security.
In March, during the war with Iran, Zamir warned the security Cabinet that the IDF was “going to collapse into itself” because the government had not passed legislation on Haredi enlistment, reserve service or extending mandatory service to 36 months.
The next day, IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the army needed about 15,000 additional soldiers, including 7,000 to 8,000 combat troops.